AI-Powered Chips and Skills Shaping Indias Next-Gen Workforce
20 Feb 2026 11:00h - 12:00h
AI-Powered Chips and Skills Shaping Indias Next-Gen Workforce
Summary
The panel convened to examine how India can build a scalable, holistic workforce to support its growing semiconductor ambitions, with Rangesh Raghavan introducing the session and the key speakers from METI, LAM Research and the DGA group [1-4][16]. Secretary S. Krishnan highlighted that the India AI Mission and the India Semiconductor Mission are converging, making semiconductors central to the AI story and underscoring the need for a resilient, globally-trusted supply chain [28-32]. He noted that India plans to commission ten major semiconductor plants, with four starting production in 2026, and that the newly announced Semiconductor Mission 2.0 will extend to equipment manufacturing and the full ecosystem [35-38]. Krishnan stressed that while India already contributes 20 % of global semiconductor design talent and has a large AI talent pool, it lacks skilled workers for advanced manufacturing and precision equipment, a gap LAM aims to fill [43-50].
Raghavan then turned to David Freed of LAM, describing the company’s 25-year presence in India, its state-of-the-art systems engineering lab in Bengaluru and its commitment to integrating India’s supply chain and workforce development [19-22]. Freed explained that the industry faces a “million-person” talent gap that spans field-service, process, equipment, metrology, device and reliability engineers, and that addressing it requires a broad understanding of the semiconductor ecosystem rather than narrow skill training [172-179][184-186]. He proposed faculty fellowships that place university professors in industry for six-to-nine months to transfer practical knowledge, and highlighted ongoing collaborations with ministries and agencies to expand training programmes [208-214].
Professor Saurabh Chandorkar added that India’s academic fabs, such as the IISc centre, are among the world’s best but cannot alone train a million people, so curricula are being revised to include fab-focused courses and hands-on modules on tools and process control [140-152][155-158]. He described the INUP programme that brings students from across India to work in fab environments and called for more such initiatives to scale up practical training nationwide [158-161]. Ashwini Vaishnaw praised LAM’s efforts, cited the growth from 50 to 315 participating universities and the deployment of students using advanced design tools to create and validate chips, emphasizing the strategic importance of semiconductors for AI and export potential [103-110][112-119].
Throughout the discussion, participants agreed that coordinated government, industry and academic action is essential, with the ISM 2.0 framework expected to fund skilling, supply-chain integration and equipment manufacturing [129-130][162-164]. The session concluded that building a broad, industry-aligned talent pipeline is critical for India to become a key player in the global semiconductor value chain and to realise the economic benefits of its semiconductor missions [61][172-176][184-186].
Keypoints
– A massive workforce and skill gap must be closed to sustain India’s semiconductor ambitions.
The opening remarks stress the need for “required workers to enable the growth of the semiconductor industry” [1]. Later, Secretary Krishnan notes that India “lacks … people in advanced manufacturing” and “precision manufacturing of semiconductor equipment” [45-48]. He describes training programmes run in India and abroad (Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Europe) [53-60]. David Freed quantifies the challenge as a “million-person gap” that spans many roles-from field-service engineers to process and device specialists [172-184]. Professor Chandorkar adds that universities must redesign curricula and provide “hands-on training” to prepare students for fab work [145-152].
– The discussion repeatedly links the semiconductor drive to the AI mission, framing them as mutually reinforcing.
Krishnan explains that the session “represents how semiconductors are so central to the AI story as AI is increasingly … the semiconductor story” [28-30]. Later, Raghavan remarks that the event “speaks to the importance of the semiconductor industry to enable this transition and the role that companies like LAM play” [84]. Vaishnaw reinforces this convergence, stating that “in this world of AI … semiconductors will be one of the most important layers” [109-110].
– Government initiatives-especially the India Semiconductor Mission 2.0 and new fab commitments-are positioned as the backbone of the ecosystem.
Krishnan announces “India Semiconductor Mission 2.0” covering the whole ecosystem, including equipment manufacturing [37-38], and notes the plan to commission ten major semiconductor plants, with four starting production in 2026 [35-36]. He projects a domestic market of “about $100 billion by the end of this decade” [40-42]. Vaishnaw cites concrete targets: “60 000 talent for clean-room operations and 80 000 overall design engineers” and the expansion from 50 to 315 universities [103-106]. Triolo references ISM 2.0’s focus on “skilling and on supply chains and manufacturing” [129-130].
– Collaboration among industry, academia, and government is presented as essential, with concrete programmes such as faculty fellowships, hands-on labs, and joint curriculum development.
Triolo frames the panel as a “three-way relationship” linking government support, academic capacity, and industry needs [162-166]. Chandorkar describes existing industry-academia projects (INUP, hands-on courses on pressure gauges and PNID systems) and calls for scaling them nationwide [195-200]. Freed proposes “faculty fellowships” that place university faculty inside companies for 6-9 months to transfer industry-relevant knowledge [208-214]. The overall message is that only a coordinated effort can bridge the talent gap [186-190].
Overall purpose/goal of the discussion
The session was convened to map out how India can build a scalable, holistic workforce and ecosystem for its semiconductor sector, aligning the national AI and semiconductor missions, detailing government policy (ISM 2.0, fab roll-outs), and forging concrete industry-academia-government partnerships to close the talent gap and secure a resilient, globally competitive supply chain.
Tone of the discussion
The conversation begins with a formal, celebratory tone-welcome remarks, praise for the exhibition, and enthusiastic acknowledgment of government achievements [4-10][84-85]. As the panel progresses, the tone shifts to a more technical and problem-solving focus, highlighting skill shortages, training needs, and specific policy actions [45-48][172-184][145-152]. Throughout, the participants remain optimistic and supportive, using occasional light-hearted remarks (e.g., the “picture” jokes [23-24]) but consistently emphasizing collaboration and urgency. By the closing minutes, the tone becomes reflective yet still forward-looking, summarizing commitments and thanking contributors [335-341].
Speakers
– S. Krishnan – Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (METI) [S1]
Areas of expertise: Government policy for semiconductor and AI missions, supply‑chain resilience, semiconductor ecosystem development.
– Harish Kumar – Representative, CSTV – Access to Energy Systems [S4]
Areas of expertise: Energy systems, solar technology, workforce skilling in the semiconductor and renewable‑energy sectors.
– Ashwini Vaishnaw – Honorable Minister for Electronics and Information Technology [S6][S7]
Areas of expertise: National semiconductor policy, industry‑government‑academia collaboration, AI‑driven technology initiatives.
– Rangesh Raghavan – Host/Moderator, LAM Research (senior executive)
Areas of expertise: Semiconductor manufacturing, deposition & etching technologies, workforce development, event facilitation.
– Professor Saurabh Chandorkar – Professor, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) – Key partner in the Semiverse program [S11]
Areas of expertise: Semiconductor fab operations, academic research, talent development, hands‑on training for semiconductor manufacturing.
– David Freed – Corporate Vice President, LAM Research (advanced analytical & simulation software) – Leader, Semiverse Solutions [S12]
Areas of expertise: Semiconductor modeling, AI‑enabled talent pipelines, workforce training, industry‑academia partnership strategies.
– Participant – Unnamed audience member (asks questions)
Areas of expertise: (not specified)
– Paul Triolo – Partner, Technology Practice Lead, DGA Group – Panel moderator [S17]
Areas of expertise: Technology consulting, semiconductor ecosystem integration, panel facilitation.
Additional speakers:
(No speakers outside the provided list were identified as having spoken in the discussion.)
The session opened with Rangesh Raghavan emphasizing that India’s semiconductor ambition “requires workers to enable the growth of the semiconductor industry and support this era” and stating that the day’s purpose was to devise a “scalable, holistic workforce strategy” for the sector [1-4]. He presented a historic Bidriware plate as a symbolic gift to the Minister [334-335], welcomed the guests – Sri Krishnan ji, Secretary of METI, David Freed of LAM Research and Paul Triolo of the DGA group – and praised the exhibition, noting its extension for an additional day [6-12][16-22]. Raghavan framed 2025 as a turning point, with government policy finally translating ambition into reality and the focus expanding beyond wafer fabrication to the whole ecosystem [16-18].
Paul Triolo acted as moderator and, before the discussion began, noted that Micron’s Anand Ramamurthy could not join because of a personal emergency [338-339]; he also mentioned that he had hoped to “grill Secretary Krishnan on ISM 2.0” but the opportunity did not arise [336-337].
Secretary S. Krishnan highlighted the convergence of the India AI Mission and the India Semiconductor Mission, observing that “semiconductors are so central to the AI story as AI is increasingly … the semiconductor story” [28-30]. He announced India’s participation in the Pax Silica consortium to build a “trusted supply chain” and warned that over-reliance on any single geography had been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic [31-33]. Krishnan then outlined the government’s rollout: ten major semiconductor plants are committed, with at least four slated to begin production in 2026 [35-36]; the newly launched Semiconductor Mission 2.0 will cover the entire ecosystem, including domestic equipment manufacturing [37-38]. He projected a domestic market of roughly $100 billion by 2030, stressing the need for capacity to serve both internal demand and exports [40-42]. Citing India’s contribution of about 20 % of global semiconductor design talent and its large manufacturing and AI talent pools [43-44], he warned of a critical shortage in “advanced manufacturing” and “precision manufacturing of semiconductor equipment” [45-48]. Existing training programmes in FRABs, OSATs and labs across India, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Europe were noted, with a call for expanded capacity [53-60][61-62].
Ashwini Vaishnaw provided a data-driven update on the education front. In 2022 the semiconductor mission set targets of 60 000 clean-room operators and 80 000 design engineers; today 315 universities are participating, with students across Assam, J & K, Kerala and Tamil Nadu using world-class design tools, fabricating chips at the SCL Mohali lab and validating them [103-108]. Vaishnaw positioned semiconductors as a foundational layer in the five-layer AI architecture [109-110][112-119][84-85] and praised LAM Research’s role in linking India’s supply chain to the global ecosystem [84-85]. He announced that a new semiconductor plant will be founded tomorrow in Uttar Pradesh by Prime Minister Narendra Modi [123-124].
David Freed’s opening remarks were brief, noting that “even design… objective… drive across the country for full scaling of our talent development” [71-73]. He quantified the workforce challenge as a “million-person gap” spanning field-service engineers, process engineers, equipment engineers, metrology engineers, device engineers and reliability engineers [172-179]. Freed argued that the gap is not a single skill set but a need for a broad industry understanding; over-specialisation such as focusing solely on coding would be counter-productive [184-186][287-292]. To bridge the divide he proposed “faculty fellowships” that would place university professors inside industry for six to nine months, thereby transferring practical knowledge back to academia [208-214], and noted ongoing meetings with ministries to secure government support [207-214].
Professor Saurabh Chandorkar added an academic perspective. He described IISc’s fab as “among the top three or four in the world” but acknowledged that a single academic fab cannot train a million engineers [143-148]. Consequently, curricula are being revised to include fab-centric courses such as SPC (process control) and hands-on modules on pressure gauges and P&ID systems [149-152][195-199]. Chandorkar highlighted the INUP programme, which brings students from across India to work in fab environments, and announced the establishment of a dedicated “training fab” that will be replicated nationwide [158-161][205-210]. He called for government backing under ISM 2.0 to fund these facilities and to support curriculum redesign [153-158][162-166].
Triolo reiterated the “three-way relationship” linking government, academia and industry [162-166] and emphasized that ISM 2.0 will focus on “skilling and on supply chains and manufacturing”. He asked Chandorkar how the landscape might look in 2026 and what support the government might need [129-133][127-130], and summarised the consensus that coordinated action is essential for building a resilient, diversified supply chain [162-166][30-33].
The discussion revealed a nuanced disagreement about workforce development. Krishnan stressed the urgency of specialised training for advanced manufacturing and precision equipment [45-48]; Freed warned against narrow, skill-centric approaches and advocated a broad, interdisciplinary talent pipeline [184-186][287-292]; Chandorkar proposed a hybrid model that combines specialised hands-on labs with a curriculum overhaul to give students both practical exposure and a wider ecosystem understanding [140-152][153-158].
Audience questions broadened the scope. Harish Kumar asked about indigenous solar-wafer capability, prompting Chandorkar to acknowledge ongoing poly-crystalline silicon growth efforts, though details remained undisclosed [258-272]. Several participants sought advice for young aspirants; Freed urged a focus on problem-solving, critical thinking and a solid grounding in physics, chemistry and materials science rather than a single skill such as coding [287-292]. A question on optimisation led Freed to differentiate between small-data R&D environments, where optimisation is limited, and data-rich manufacturing settings, where AI-driven optimisation is highly effective [306-311][322-331]. When Paul asked “What is IAS?” the acronym was not clarified in the transcript [-].
In closing, the panel reaffirmed strong consensus that India must close a massive semiconductor talent gap, that AI and semiconductors are mutually reinforcing, and that a resilient, globally-trusted supply chain depends on coordinated government, industry and academic action. The newly announced ISM 2.0, the expansion to ten new fabs, the growth to 315 universities, and LAM Research’s Bengaluru lab together form the backbone of a holistic workforce strategy. Unresolved issues include the detailed roadmap for faculty fellowships, the scaling plan for training fabs, precise quantitative targets for the million-person gap, and the development of domestic precision-equipment manufacturing. Overall, the participants agreed that coordinated policy, industry investment and academic reform are essential to close the talent gap and position India as a pivotal node in the global semiconductor value chain [61-62][172-179][208-214][315-321].
required workers to enable the growth of the semiconductor industry and support this era. We’re here today to just talk about that. Thank you for the opportunity to engage in this important conversation. We have experts here who can talk about how we build scalable, holistic workforce strategies to develop India’s semiconductor ambitions. We extend a warm welcome to our guests today. I’ll start with Sri Krishnanji, Secretary of METI. Thank you, sir, for joining us today. We know you’re very busy, but if I may add, excellent job by the METI team and all of, you know, we’re very proud to be here at this event. It was a mind -blowing exhibition. For those of you who have not enjoyed the exhibition, I urge you.
It has apparently been extended by a day. So I urge you to visit tomorrow. Tomorrow, if you get the chance to do so. You can visit till 8 p .m. today. You can visit till 8 p .m. today, sir. Sir, thank you, thank you sir well we have also here with us David Freed, Corporate Vice President and leader of LAM Research’s advanced analytical and simulation software business that supports the development of the semiconductor industry we also have Mr. Paul Triolo Mr. Paul Triolo is a partner in technology practice lead at the DGA group who graciously agreed to be a moderator for our panel discussion which is to follow shortly to set some context to both these sessions 2025 was a great year it was a great year for the India semiconductor industry as well with the right focus of the government and thanks to the India semiconductor mission years of policy vision are finally translating ambition into reality and we are beginning to see the fruits of that now and rightfully so the government has expanded their focus beyond just wafer fabrication to the larger ecosystem and to the larger because we realize that it takes the whole village to make this happen.
How do we ensure that we have the right talent, the research infrastructure, the technology expertise, the supply chain, all of the other things that it takes to support this sector? With the industry accelerating past a trillion dollars, we at LAM recognize the importance of supporting a globally distributed innovation -led ecosystem. We’ve been in India for 25 years, and we are committed to being a long -term partner and contributor to this. We have a state -of -the -art systems engineering lab for semiconductors in Bengaluru, which continues to grow and is significantly expanding India’s contribution to the global industry. We are also making rapid progress in integrating India’s supply chain into our global supply chain. But most importantly, we have taken big strides in supporting the development of the workforce in India, and David will talk about that a little bit more shortly.
so it won’t take any much more time but I’ll invite Secretary Krishnan to share a few of his remarks. Thank you. Do you want a picture? He wants a picture now.
Part of the planning for many of these sessions included instructions that the picture of the panellist needs to be taken right in the beginning so that if somebody goes missing midway through they’re not missed. So I guess he was getting to do his job. Lamb research in some ways is a bit of a a lucky charm as far as I’m concerned and I think Rangesh will understand what I’m trying to say but more importantly I think this is, I’m really happy to be part of this session because this is one of those sessions which represents what the convergence is in what India is attempting. We have two major missions, we have the India AI mission and we have the India semiconductor mission and this session kind of represents how those two missions are converging or getting together.
It represents how semiconductors are so central to the AI story as AI is increasingly to the semiconductor story. So this morning we also signed the Pax Silica, we were added to the Pax Silica so which again represents a very important step forward in building a trusted supply chain in the semiconductor space. What the world needs is a resilient and reliable supply chain where, I mean, it is not just for geopolitical reasons, but even for other reasons. We saw in the COVID pandemic issues relating to the supply chain prop up and therefore over -reliance on any one geography is always going to be a problem and India needs to be part of this game. And for India to be a reliable long -term partner in this game, it is also very important that we are not just part of the design teams, which we already are, including for land research and including for many other leading semiconductor companies in the world, but we also need to be part of the manufacturing.
And manufacturing not just of the chips. And this year we are going to have 10 of the, we already have committed to 10 major semiconductor plants across the country, four of them at least. We will commence production during the current year, during 2026. and the remaining in due course in about a year or so. But more importantly, I think the India Semiconductor Mission 2 .0 has also been announced, which will cover the entire ecosystem, including the manufacture of semiconductor equipment in the country. And I think that is a very, very critical and important step. And this is important from a context where I think the use of semiconductors is only going to grow and not come down. India’s own market for semiconductors is going to be about $100 billion by the end of this decade, and a fairly substantial part of what the global market is.
And we need to build capacity to actually cater to a significant part of this market, and in some senses also for export. And the export part is important, not from the perspective, not just from the perspective of… being competitive and being efficient because if you’re not able to export then it obviously means you’re not competitive and efficient globally but also because when you are part of a global supply chain you are never going to manufacture everything in the chain but you need to have a significantly important and you need to be an indispensable part of it somewhere so that you don’t sort of get knocked out of it that somebody else’s way so it is it’s it’s the way that this entire system works it’s the way the global value chain works and that’s where we are coming together in this entire space and what lamb is doing in the space is extremely important and equally what’s very important if we are to do this kind of advanced manufacturing in the country is actually the capacity building to have the skills to do this we keep talking about STEM skills in this country we keep talking about the number of people who are we we have 20 % of the semiconductor design team in the country, in the world.
We also are recognized as having one of the largest talent pools for manufacturing, for AI in the world. Both of these are true. But where we lack is people in advanced manufacturing. In the actual manufacture of semiconductors. Where we lack is in the precision manufacturing of the equipment needed for semiconductors. And LAM Research and companies of that nature, in building the semiconductor ecosystem in this country, are looking to develop precisely that. The precision manufacture of semiconductor equipment. That means we will have to skill people in that space. We will have to skill people in that line of work. And that’s the real challenge that we will be facing in the next five years. As part of the India Semiconductor Mission, we have trained workers.
In FRABS and in… in OSATs, not just in India, but like in the semiconductor lab at Mohali, but also in Malaysia. We have trained people in Singapore. We have trained people in Taiwan. We have trained people in Europe. We have trained people in different parts of the world. And we will continue to do that, but we will also need more capacity to do it here. And training and research capacity being built by companies like LAND will have an important implication there, and the government will support those initiatives as part of the India Semiconductor Mission 2 .0, and make sure that India becomes a key player in this space as well and becomes a key partner in global supply chains.
It’s an investment that the world is making in India, which I can assure you will be paid back in no uncertain terms in terms of building a resilient, trusted value chain for semiconductors for the world, and that’s precisely what… We are attempting… to do through the series of initiatives and today we can’t any longer speak of ai without speaking of semiconductors or vice versa and which is why what lamb is doing and what we are attempting to do in terms of skill building in this critical space is so important and which is why i’m extremely happy to be part of this event and all strength to you in lamb may you continue to be a lucky charm thank you
thank you very much christian sir uh deepa sir is in such a hurry that you’re in such a hurry uh we want to make sure you get your gifts I just wanted to wind down. Five minutes. Okay. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Honorable Minister Vaishnoji. He is five minutes away, is what I’m just told. Minister Vaishnoji has been instrumental in getting this industry where it is in India over the past few years. We look forward to his presence here shortly. And in the interim, I’d just like to invite David Freed to give a few comments. David is a leader of our global semiconductor modeling and workforce development organization called Semiverse Solutions. David has played a key role.
in building India’s workforce training on advanced semiconductor manufacturing. He’ll give a few words about that. Thank you. Thank you very much.
even design. And so the objective here is really to drive across the country for full scaling of our talent development. So with that I’ll wrap up. Thank you very much for your attention and I think we’ll kick off our panel pretty soon. I’m sorry.
Thank you very much David. Welcome sir. It’s a pleasure to see you again. We know you’re very busy and this is one of the marquee events for the country of the whole year. The scale and the impression of this event is mind boggling truly at the scale that we have been able to do it. So congratulations to you sir and the team for inspiring us with the exhibits that we saw today were amazing. And it speaks to the potential of AI. It also speaks to the importance of the semiconductor industry to enable this transition and the role that companies like LAM play in that. and we are very grateful to you sir for your support.
You’ve always been very supportive of us in our journey here and you continue to be so we’d like to hear from you a few remarks. We know you’re a very busy person so we’d appreciate it. Thank you.
This is LAM team or people who have come to listen to LAM. How many people work in LAM? Mostly people who are mostly here. LAM supplier ecosystem. Okay, very good. Solar technology. You’re in solar, very good. The way the semiconductor industry is growing in India, this is an unprecedented thing. Just in a few years, in the beginning of 2014, I was told that I was going to be a member of the LAM team. I was told that I was going to be a member of the LAM team. I was told that I was going to be a member of the LAM team. I was told that I was going to be a member of the LAM team.
I was told that I was going to be a member of the LAM team. I was told that I was going to be a member of the LAM team. I was told that I was going to be a member of the LAM team. Initially, we were focused on design and we had a lot of new capabilities in design. Then we came to manufacturing and now we are going much deeper in equipment and materials. In 2022, when the semiconductor mission started, we had a target of 60 ,000 talent for clean room operations and 80 ,000 overall design engineers. We thought we will start in 50 universities. Today, we have 315 universities. We already have students using world’s latest design tools, designing chips, getting them manufactured in SCL Mohali and validating them.
And throughout the country, from Assam, J &K, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Students from all over the country are doing chip design themselves. This capability is going to become a great power for the coming years. And we all know that in this world of AI, in the age of intelligence, semiconductors will be one of the most important layers. In this architecture of five layers, semiconductor is going to be a very important layer. So, all of you please participate in this. I would like to thank LAM for taking this initiative. I would like to thank all the people who have got associated, especially the universities. How many people have come from the universities? How was your experience? How was your experience coming from the university?
Very good. How easy was it to use this entire semi -verse? Very easy. Actually, my good friends from LAM… It was easy. Did anyone find it difficult? Talent gap has to be filled by India only. That means all that work is going to come to India. That will be a huge opportunity, space for our young people. And tomorrow, in Uttar Pradesh, a new semiconductor plant will be founded by our Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi. Many congratulations
As you know sir we are in the business of deposition and etching this is an old 14th century Indian technology called Bidariware from the district of Bidar in North Karnataka where they also do this damascene process which is what is used for the most advanced semiconductors today so this is a plate which is showing the skill of the artisans who have manually etched these features and deposited metal within those etched features and then polished it which is exactly the process used today for semiconductor manufacturing so we thought it would be very appropriate for you to have this gift so thank you very much sir thank you thank you so much thank you so much sir Thank you.
Thank you. so now we can proceed with the panel discussion with the remaining time we have we have Paul Trielo here to conduct the panel discussion we had Mr. Anand Ramamurthy from Micron due to join us unfortunately he had a personal emergency and he had to leave town so we wish him well in the meanwhile we’ll have David and we’ll have Professor Saurabh Chandorkar Professor Chandorkar is one of our key partners at Indian Institute of Science he has been instrumental in the launch and execution of the Semiverse program he is also very busy advancing the state of the nation in the most advanced research areas for semiconductors and its applications so we’d love to hear from him as well thank you very much thank you Paul
Thank you. So, okay, I’m going to pick up on some of the themes that were discussed earlier. I was going to grill Secretary Krishnan on ISM 2 .0, but unfortunately we can’t do that. But I think it’s really important looking forward to, as was mentioned, ISM 2 .0 will focus on skilling and on supply chains and manufacturing. So let me start with Dr. Chandakar. We know that IIS is hosting a really rich center in Bangalore with LAM and other companies that is critical for the skilling issue in the semiconductor industry going forward. How do you see the future shaping up in 2026? And what does IIS need, for example, from the government under ISM 2 .0?
Sure. Sure. So let me just start by saying that. It’s actually quite amazing for me to just have. the dream of having FABs come up in India. It was something that actually happened from my father’s time, who was also a professor in IIT Bombay. And since his time, he was also a semiconductor manufacturer and technology and such. So anyway, fast forward, we are in this amazing position where we are actually getting FABs here, which obviously, as has been discussed, leads us to realize that we actually need a lot of workforce. And it’s not that we didn’t have people out here who were learning, say, semiconductor technology. It wasn’t that we were not doing semiconductor design.
But what was actually missing was the ability to actually see how FAB actually works, where you actually go and interact with tools. And that’s where the semi -verse comes in and, you know, and basically we in ISE do, in fact, have a really good FAB. as an academic fab, I would say we are probably in the top three or four in the world. So we are pretty good there, but that’s not the case for most of the universities in here. And we alone cannot take the role of training one million people. That’s just impossible. So when this whole program came, this was an ideal opportunity. And so, of course, that’s very exciting. And I see ourselves, we also recognize that this needs a certain re -look at the way we teach our coursework.
So, for example, we started teaching courses such as advanced notes from the perspective of fab, and that’s where, in fact, we do teach and make use of this software. and I, for example, teach SPC, which is basically process control. How does one do that? And those are the kinds of things that are actually really required for FAB. And so the way I see it is I think the foundation has been laid down, and I am sure that if this continues along with the support of the government, I’m sure we’ll do just fine. But the ask is not small, by the way. If you just look at it, it’s not just that once you get trained on tools like this that you become really actually immediately ready to go and start working in the FABs.
That’s not the case. And what needs to be, therefore, understood is that there is a second layer of hands -on training that needs to happen. We ourselves, in fact, have started, we have a training FAB that’s currently getting established, and this needs to happen across India far more. We already do these kinds of programs called INUP where people come from all around India and do some sort of FAB in our FABs. But this would be more intended towards training. And so we are gearing ourselves up for that. And I think this needs to happen everywhere else where more FABs need to come up and show this up.
Great, great. Those are great. So, I mean, as we’ve heard, I think this integration of government support for both the academic piece of this and the industry piece is really important, a really important three -way relationship. So I’m going to go back to David with a great presentation on Semiverse and say, you know, LAM as I think everybody understands is such a critical. part of the supply chain. I mean, you know, no land, no semiconductors, right? So, David, how do you envision this workforce? As Professor Chandakar has noted, you know, the foundation has been laid, but I think that as AI is taking off and as we look forward to the next three to four years, you know, we’re going to see this huge demand.
And the million -person shortage really sort of blows my mind here. That’s a huge number. So in terms of support from the government to help close that gap, to continue the momentum that land has generated here, what are the gaps you see here? And are there areas you’d like to see expanded in terms of this collaboration between both the government and academia?
Okay, so I’ll start just thinking about the gaps, right? This million. This million -person gap. I think it’s important to recognize that that gap is not a single type of person, a single type of skill. Right. There’s gaps across the entire ecosystem. And that ecosystem spans from even just from LAM’s perspective, field service engineers who maintain the tools in the lab and in the fab all the way to process engineers, process developers, equipment engineers. And then if you expand out to the rest of the ecosystem, our customers, they will have demands in metrology engineers. They will have demands in device engineers, simulation and reliability. So the span of disciplines that make up that million person gap is very, very broad.
OK. And so one of the things that we tend to focus more on developing talent and a talent pipeline rather than just. Educating on individual skills. And I think that’s super important for the future of semiconductors in India that we focus on broad talent. And I want to I actually want to touch a word that you said. I think you said it five different times in your response, Professor. Use the word understand. the understanding of what we’re producing the understanding of what our products are is so much more important than a singular skill to go do one thing and so the semi -verse program at IISC as we’ve expanded out across the country is more about teaching students what are we making what are the devices what does process integration mean what are we creating so that those students can go off into various different areas of the ecosystem are they ready for all of those jobs with one class?
no, of course not they need the additional hands -on training they need additional education in those areas but my recommendation I think the recommendation broadly based is focus on talent rather than skill okay combining a broad understanding of the industry and what we’re what we’re trying to accomplish and what we’re building it’s taken the the the countries that have historically led this industry have been working at this and for 50 to 70 years we’ve developed that understanding and that broad swath of knowledge over 50 to 70 years if we’re going to do it here in two years it’s going to take a very different focus on how we develop the understanding of the of the industry so that that’s my expectation but by doing that we can address all of those gaps sort of at
the same time great great yeah i mean i think that the the the skill skilling is the sort of popular word here but it may not be the right way to think about this industry given what we discussed about the complexity uh of manufacturing and and the the disciplines that are needed it really is a commitment to a to a you know a huge set of uh to a huge set of uh to a huge set of uh to a huge set of uh to a huge set of uh to a huge set of talent development um that again uh collaboration with IAS and the academic world is so important. So let’s turn back to Professor Chandekar.
I know we’re going to have a little bit of time for questions, I hope, at the end. What is IAS? So I’ve talked about what is IAS looking for from the government. What is IAS looking for the industry as we enter, particularly think in terms of ISM 2 .0, which I think is really important. We may not know all the details. And then are there areas where things can be improved or streamlined? And what are the challenges? Because this is, as we know, that now this is a complex
Right. So from the industry, some of the things that we already are actually in a process of talking with industry in this regard, which is he just mentioned right now that you don’t necessarily have to focus on one particular skill. But still making the coursework tailored to. what is actually essential for some of the skills that are needed is something that needs to happen. And so as an example, we recently started a course for just giving hands -on training to students, sort of people working in labs, on how do pressure gauges work, how do you build PNID systems. Those are the kinds of things that, for example, he just talked about, how you need to be able to maintain tools.
And that’s the kind of training that we are, in fact, giving in our own courses as well. In fact, one of the rather interesting ways in which ISC is currently sort of providing service to the industry is by just training. Our own 50 -odd employees who work in our fabs. those actually are surprisingly in demand are immensely in demand and it’s very hard for us to keep them in so what we would like more from industry is maybe more of this kind of hand holding that so for example we talked with LAM and did this together with them this needs to actually sort of grow across and to some extent we can do it but I think LAM since you guys already are giving out this software to so many other places maybe it would be easier to do the same elsewhere as well and I’m sure that’s something that’s going to be of great use
just one comment I’ll make is this is one of the few situations where industry doesn’t need to be convinced to be involved here if we don’t fill that talent gap we will fail Like all of our business objectives and our growth objectives for the next 10 years require the talent pipeline to be developed. So this is not something where you’re trying to crack into industry or trying to convince us to do something we don’t want to do. We fail if this doesn’t happen. And so I think it’s like one of these examples where we have mutually perfectly aligned objectives. And so we’re trying. I’ve had meetings for the last two days with different ministers and different agencies here in India where we’re trying to find the ways we can be more involved.
One way, and I hope I’m not ruining any surprise, an idea that came up over the last couple days is faculty fellowships at these companies. Right? If we could take the faculty and give them a job, if we can figure out a way to get that funded, give the faculty a job for six to nine months inside our companies, in the industry, and really drive more industry -relevant knowledge to the faculty, to the universities, I think this is a brilliant idea. And we’re going to try to pursue this. And this idea only comes when we sit down at the table and we start talking. What do the universities need? What do we need? What can we provide?
How do we make this work? But nobody needs to convince us. We need this to happen.
Right, right. Yeah, along the same lines, maybe more projects that these students do for PhD, if they are aligned with not just LAM, actually, all the entire center.
No, no, no, just LAM. Just LAM. Just LAM.
Yeah, so I think that would really work out. And I think that’s kind of important. And I truly believe that unless you do projects along the lines of something like, which is aligned with industry, it’s not necessarily. He did say that, you did say that talent matters. But I think the fact that we have small time window actually means that we don’t have as much time. Yeah. As for example, so. So I think that’s a really good point. So as an example, I myself did my PhD in, you know, men’s. And in industry, when I joined Intel, I started out with no knowledge of all the SPC stuff, no knowledge of, you know, how they do stuff on the floor and whatnot.
But I had to learn it, and I had enough time. I had no problems. This is not the case here. They’re going to have, so for example, sure enough, now once data starts their fab, they’re going to quickly find out how hard it really is, how quickly and how often you fail, and how it’s important to pick yourselves up and to move forward. And sort of that sort of, I think that’s something that PhDs, for example, have a lot in them, sort of built into them, because they fail and mostly just fail and then eventually succeed at some point. And so I think that’s another thing that probably needs to happen at a bigger scale.
I think that’s a big deal within India where PhDs, more PhDs now also start looking into these kinds of jobs and just sort of. having at least some bent towards them. So that would be a thing.
And I think it’s important that having the manufacturing, having the fact that there’s going to be fabs, I mean, Japan is going through a similar thing, right, where for a long time they weren’t doing advanced logic, and now that’s one of the reasons they attracted TSMC to come to build a fab. And now within the academic sector, there’s a lot of interest in hardware engineering because it’s a hard discipline, but at the end of the day, if the country is building fabs and there’s a need for engineers, then that makes it more attractive because it has to be, so that’s part of the whole ecosystem building.
I was just going to say, I think, I joke around that I only want LAM to benefit from this, but I think we’re seeing other companies in the industry follow us. Obviously, LAM is leading this effort. Obviously, LAM is… benefiting from this already, right? We’re already seeing the talent pipeline develop. We’re scaling the team in Bangalore. We’re already getting the benefits from this. And so because of that, our competitors, but also our partner companies have started doing the same. And so I think we are seeing, you know, I can say ASML, they’re not a competitor. They’re a very good partner. We work with them very closely. We see them following suit. They’re jumping in and trying to do some of the same things that we’re doing here in India because, again, their business objectives are reliant on closing that talent gap.
So I do think we’re seeing, I’m very, very proud of LAM. I’m very proud that we’re leading this, that we’re out in front. But I’m also very proud to see the rest of the industry jumping in, copying what we’re doing because we all need it to happen.
Great. Do we want to take a couple questions from the audience? Okay, wow, we got a lot of them. Okay, let’s go right here.
Thank you very much Chairman. I am Harish Kumar from CSTV, Access to Energy Systems. Question, first of all I would like to thank the Minister for having a very good start -up in the semiconductor industries in India. So the question is how to make a skilling, skilling India, energizing India. Skilling India, there are two questions. How to make the lamp research, make a skilling activity like in wafer development, wafer in solar technology. The solar cells and solar module came from the wafers. So there is no unit of any kind in India on wafer development. So there is any program on wafer development for the solar manufacturing, solar cell manufacturing and marketing in India, not import anything.
I don’t know if you…
So I can actually answer to some extent and let him take over from there. Actually, there are efforts going on in India for, in fact, polycrystalline silicon growth for wafers, and that’s something that is coming up. I won’t reveal because I don’t know exactly if they want to reveal it, but it’s a big company. They’ll be bringing it in. So it’s happening. It’s going to happen.
Because of the skill development, India has a youth, 40 % youth in India. The question is skilling, skilling in India, energizing in India, solar technology. We’re bringing solar technology to marketing.
Sure. I think, I mean, one thing I would say is, like, leveraging the connection between, between industry, academia, the government. And it’s been incredibly fruitful. It’s also just been, frankly, pleasant. It’s been such a joy to work together between the government, academia, and our industry. And I think solar should follow a similar model, right, where there’s business opportunity, where there’s an educational opportunity, where there’s an incentive to be successful as a country. We put those pieces together, and wonderful things can happen. And I cannot express how wonderful, how enjoyable this experience has been in India because the faculty we’ve worked with at IASC and the other schools are such consummate professionals, are so invested in this vision of the future, and the government is backing it.
So I would urge, you know, copycat this model of putting the three pieces together and one day… Wonderful things can happen because the demand is here, the supply is here, and the commitment to the vision is here.
Okay, one question May I? This feels very palpably like a Y2K moment where the demand is there and you have this great opportunity if somebody was listening to this and they have a young person in the family and they’re looking to pivot in a flowchart, what is the first thing that the young person needs to do to get into this market?
As a young person problem solving, critical thinking whether they want to be building Legos or doing coding exercises critical thinking, problem solving and then some specialization will occur naturally later but what I would urge against and it goes back to some of my messages before is focusing exclusively on a specific skill because this is the path to success Thank you and just look at what’s happening with our previous focus on coding. Okay, everybody said coding is our way to the future. Coding is the way to success. And now AI is writing all the code. So I would stress, like, avoid the urge to focus on a very single skill, a single solution, and I would focus on a broad -based understanding, problem -solving critical thinking, physics, chemistry, material science, the broad, hard physical sciences lead to these disciplines across the ecosystem.
Now, I say this as a father of two who has failed miserably to get his daughters into STEM. But I tried. I tried really, really hard, and I think that’s where the kids, that’s where the talent is going to come from, by thinking broadly, by thinking critically and thinking about problem -solving, rather than picking one skill to get very good at.
I got my daughter into chemical engineering.
Just a minute. Sir, I have one intervention directly to you, David. I was listening to you with rapt attention. Excuse me. I would come to know that about the talent. I was a student of English Literature of Calcutta University 30 years ago. There is a very famous essay by T .S. Eliot where he mentioned about traditional and individual talent. It is a talent pool which matters a lot. I have a specific question with respect to optimization, which you mentioned. About the semiconductor is AI, AI is semiconductor, and it’s optimization policy. And it says that could you just please just highlight as much as possible.
All right. Well, that will be our last question.
So the interesting thing, I think, again, optimization and some of these technologies have to be really discipline focused. And so when we’re doing R &D, we’re in a small data environment. We don’t have a lot of data. Optimization isn’t. Isn’t very helpful when we’re in manufacturing. We have lots of data. Optimization is extremely helpful. And so we’re developing machine learning and AI techniques. But you have to bring the right tool to the job. Optimism.
Sir, I have one intervention directly to you, David. I was listening to you with rapt attention. Excuse me. I would come to know that about the talent. I was a student of English Literature of Calcutta University 30 years ago. There is a very famous essay by T .S. Eliot where he mentioned about traditional individual talent. It is the talent pool which matters a lot. I have a specific question with respect to optimization, which you mentioned, about the semiconductor is AI, AI is semiconductor, and it’s optimization policy, and it says that could you please just highlight as much as possible.
All right. Well, that will be our last question.
So the interesting thing, I think, again, optimization and some of these technologies have to be really discipline -focused. And so when we’re doing R &D, we’re in a small data environment. We don’t have a lot of data. Optimization isn’t very helpful. When we’re in manufacturing, we have lots of data. Optimization is extremely helpful. And so we’re developing machine learning and AI techniques. But you have to bring the right. You have to bring the right tool to the job. Optimization is a great tool to the job. Organization in a small data R &D mode isn’t always super helpful. Very, very helpful in a big data manufacturing mode. So I think we really have to focus on the discipline.
All right. Well, with that, we have to call it an end because we have exceeded the time allotted to us. There are other people waiting to use this room. So thank you very much, David. Thank you, Paul, for hosting. Thank you very much, Professor Chandakar. Appreciate it. Thank you very much, Paul. Thank you. All right. Yeah. He gets a black dress. Come over here for a photo op. Thank you. Thank you.
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Event“The exhibition was extended for an additional day and David Freed of LAM Research was present.”
The knowledge base notes that the event was extended by a day and that David Freed was among the attendees [S5].
“India announced participation in the Pax Silica consortium to build a trusted semiconductor supply chain.”
Both a press briefing and a description of Pax Silica confirm India’s entry into the consortium as a strategic move to become a trusted partner in the global semiconductor supply chain [S27] and [S66].
“Secretary S. Krishnan highlighted the convergence of the India AI Mission and the India Semiconductor Mission.”
The broader discussion in the knowledge base emphasizes convergence among government, industry and academia on India’s semiconductor workforce strategy, providing context for the AI-Semiconductor mission alignment [S1].
“Secretary S. Krishnan is the Secretary for India (government).”
The knowledge base lists S. Krishnan as a Secretary speaking at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, confirming his official role [S18].
The discussion shows strong consensus among speakers that India faces a huge semiconductor talent gap, that AI and semiconductors are tightly linked, that a resilient, integrated supply chain is vital, and that universities together with industry must collaborate to build capacity. Additional agreement exists on the importance of broad, interdisciplinary skill development for youth.
High consensus across technical, policy, and educational dimensions, suggesting coordinated action is likely to be pursued and reinforcing the strategic priority of building a self‑sufficient semiconductor ecosystem in India.
The panel largely concurs on the strategic importance of building a semiconductor workforce and supply‑chain resilience, but diverges on how best to develop talent – whether through narrowly focused precision‑equipment training, broad interdisciplinary education, or expanded hands‑on fab facilities. A secondary tension exists over the perceived adequacy of India’s existing manufacturing talent pool. Unexpectedly, questions about solar‑wafer capability and literary references introduced off‑topic disagreements.
Moderate – while there is strong consensus on the overarching goals, the differing views on training methodology and talent adequacy could affect policy design and allocation of resources, requiring careful coordination to align approaches.
The discussion was driven forward by a handful of strategic insights that moved it from generic enthusiasm to concrete, actionable planning. S. Krishnan’s framing of AI and semiconductor missions as intertwined, and the announcement of ISM 2.0, created the initial focus on ecosystem‑wide talent needs. Ashwini Vaishnaw’s data‑rich update validated the rapid progress and underscored scale. Professor Chandorkar’s call for a second layer of hands‑on training highlighted the practical bottleneck, which David Freed reframed as a broader talent‑development issue rather than a narrow skill gap. Freed’s faculty‑fellowship proposal and his advice to youth crystallized the collaborative, holistic approach the panel advocated. Together, these comments redirected the conversation toward integrated policy, education, and industry actions, shaping a narrative that emphasized systemic, long‑term capacity building over short‑term skill fixes.
Disclaimer: This is not an official session record. DiploAI generates these resources from audiovisual recordings, and they are presented as-is, including potential errors. Due to logistical challenges, such as discrepancies in audio/video or transcripts, names may be misspelled. We strive for accuracy to the best of our ability.
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